A Final Fantasy XIII banner outside Shibuya Station. Square Enix placed huge banner ads throughout Tokyo leading up to launch.

Final Fantasy XIII appears to be off to a great start. At the game's official countdown launch event in Tokyo today, Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada announced that initial shipments for the game reached the 1.8 million mark.

Square Enix later issued a formal statement about the shipment feat. The 1.8 million includes both the standard software-only version of the game version of the game and the "Lightning" PlayStation 3 bundle.

An initial shipment of 1.8 million is particularly impressive for Final Fantasy XIII given the PS3's current install base. As reported by Enterbrain yesterday, PS3 just recently topped the four million mark.

With the FFXIII shipments, the total worldwide shipment figure for the Final Fantasy series as whole now stands at at 92 million units. FFXIII hits overseas markets in March.